Steelers' Sanders making a name for himself

Steelers' Sanders making a name for himself
Thursday, August 05, 2010
By Gerry Dulac, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Matt Freed/Post-GazetteSteelers wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders pulls in a pass at training camp at St. Vincent College in Latrobe Wednesday.Make no mistake, Emmanuel Sanders is no Dez Bryant, at least not when it comes to exhibiting training-camp protocol.

Sanders, a rookie wide receiver from pass-happy Southern Methodist, was more than happy to carry Hines Ward's shoulder pads off the practice field at St. Vincent College -- something Bryant, a rookie, refused to do for veterans at the Dallas Cowboys training camp.

"It's like a rite of passage," said Sanders, a third-round draft choice. "That's what rookies do."

Sanders is hoping to do something else that a rookie wide receiver did last year for the Steelers: Be a big contributor in the offense.

He is hoping to follow the path of Mike Wallace, a third-round draft choice in 2009 who won the battle as the team's No. 3 receiver and ended up catching six touchdown passes and averaging a team-high 19.6 yards per catch.

Sanders is off to a good start, already impressing the coaches and fellow receivers with his speed, quickness and route-running ability.

"He's ahead of where Michael was as a route-runner," said offensive coordinator Bruce Arians, who called Wallace the best rookie receiver he has had in 12 years.

"He has it," Wallace said. "You can see it in him. He has that swagger about himself. He has a great feel for the game. You can see it already. He can find holes [in the coverage], he can run great routes already. He just has the hips to do it."

Sanders was a big-play receiver at SMU, where he played in the slot in June Jones' run-and-shoot offense and caught 98 passes for 1,339 yards and six touchdowns. He finished his career as SMU's all-time leader in catches (235), receiving yards (3,791), 100-yard receiving games (16) and touchdowns catches (34).

With the Steelers, he is being used on the outside behind Wallace -- the split-end, or X, position formerly manned by Santonio Holmes. The Steelers already have Hines Ward and Antwaan Randle El at the flanker, or Z, position, along with another rookie, Antonio Brown, their sixth-round pick from Central Michigan.

"Coach Jones' system didn't do anything but help me out," Sanders said. "It taught me how to read coverages on the run, and that's what it takes to be great receiver in this league -- you got to be able to read coverages.

"The only negative is, in college, I played in the slot and now I'm outside here, so it's a little different. The ball takes longer to get there and everything, so I'm just trying to get real comfortable on the outside. I'm starting to get there."

Coach Mike Tomlin pointed out that Sanders was one of the players who kept working out and watching film at the team's South Side facility after the off-season workouts were over. Sanders said he worked with wide receivers coach Scottie Montgomery and also watched video of Ward and Holmes in every game in 2008 and 2009.

"I critiqued both of their routes and everything," Sanders said. "I learned a lot about how to come out of my routes, where I need to be, my landmarks. It definitely made me better."

In all likelihood, Sanders will begin the season as the team's No. 4 receiver, although he is in a battle for the spot with Brown and veteran Arnaz Battle, who will play special teams.

"He's fast, but I don't think anyone is as fast as Mike," Arians said of Sanders, comparing him to Wallace.

"It's just knowing what the quarterback is thinking, where he can find you.

"If you're running in the wrong spot and you beat your man, you're still running in the wrong spot. You have to learn where his reception area is. He'll be fine."

I don't know about that but it seems like we cut a young draft pick every year. It's a bit more rare that a wr actually pans out and the law of average is not on our side since Wallace came through last year. Guy could be awesome, not saying otherwise, I just want to see it in a real game, multiple games before you start minimizing Holmes impact on the team. I have a feeling we will be missing him but of course I hope I am wrong.

Re: Steelers' Sanders making a name for himself

I don't know about that but it seems like we cut a young draft pick every year. It's a bit more rare that a wr actually pans out and the law of average is not on our side since Wallace came through last year. Guy could be awesome, not saying otherwise, I just want to see it in a real game, multiple games before you start minimizing Holmes impact on the team. I have a feeling we will be missing him but of course I hope I am wrong.

But, the concern was how the 5-11, 180-pounder from SMU would "carry his pads" at training camp.

It didn't take long for that worry to fade here. Sanders has been the rookie sensation on a team that appears to have several good ones, and the talk now deals with how soon he'll step into the lineup. It's already obvious that Sanders runs better routes than Mike Wallace, who was last year's team Rookie of the Year.

"Yeah, I'm hearing some buzz about me," said Sanders. "But at the same time I'm used to it. It happened at SMU. It happened here. But I can't let it get ahead of me. I have to continue what I've been doing and that's making plays."

Sanders made another acrobatic catch yesterday morning when he went way up to grab a Ben Roethlisberger fastball near the sideline. He came down with his feet in bounds to complete a play that would've made his number-sake, the former No. 88 Lynn Swann, proud.

But Sanders really didn't think much of the catch.

"That one I wouldn't say was easy," Sanders said. "But it was normal. I made some incredible catches in college."

Sanders said it ranked "fourth or fifth" on his training-camp catch list. The top one, he said, was the leaping touchdown catch of a Byron Leftwich pass during red-zone work earlier in the week.

Right now, Sanders is working behind Wallace at split end, but sees a slot position in his future.

"I think so and I hope so, but I'm not in control of that," Sanders said. "I'm just going to continue to make plays and hopefully the coaches see my hard work that I'm doing, and come the regular season I hope they have a spot for me somewhere."

Judging by the number of short passes and bubble screens thrown Sanders's way at this camp, the Steelers are planning to take advantage of his run-after-catch skills. But Sanders is dreaming bigger dreams, such as "running out of that tunnel and seeing all those Terrible Towels wave," he said. "I see me running a post down the middle, Byron or whoever's in there hitting me on a deep post, me scoring, and seeing everyone going crazy."

Sanders ran a lot of plays as the third receiver during Wednesday's practice along with returning kickoffs.

Sanders hasn't returned kickoffs since his freshman year at SMU, when he had 12 for 288 yards.

Sanders was more of a punt returner in college. He had 20 returns as a sophomore and then 20 more as a senior.

Stefan Logan is still the first-team kick and punt returner heading into to Saturday's preseason game against Detroit.

» Ben Roethlisberger looked crisp during the "lightning" package in which the team goes hurry-up despite plenty of time remaining on the clock. Byron Leftwich and Dennis Dixon also had reps during the period.

» The 11-on-11 snap count two weeks into training camp is almost a dead heat. Dixon leads with 197 followed by Leftwich with 182, Roethlisberger 176 and Charlie Batch 59.

» The highlight of afternoon practice had to be when Stefan Logan hauled in a pass from Charlie Batch during an 11-on-11 session. Batch floated the ball directly over the head of a streaking Logan, who laid flat out to catch the ball.